Illinois School District 126, covering Alsip, Hazelgreen and Oak Lawn, has defended its choice to assign summer reading to 12- and 13-year-olds that is replete with harsh profanity and references to teen sex -- even teen sex with adults.

Prairie Junior High School’s required reading list for rising 8th graders gave children six books to choose from over the summer. Parents have complained that three of the six books contain adult content which is highly age-inappropriate. Those complaints, however, have fallen on deaf ears. At a recent school board meeting, school board members said they intend to continue assigning the books. The following are excerpts from just a handful of the many salacious passages found in one of the books, Fat Kid Rules the World,by K. L. Going:

(Warning: Adult Content not Suitable for Children):

God, I want to touch her. Her legs are full. … If I could just reach under that skirt. … (p. 6)

No one beats me or f—s me without my permission. (p. 11)

F—k off, morons. (p. 47)

I swear I’ll tear your g—d*mn, f—ing b*lls off…(p. 57)

“She’d f—k you if you stay in the band,” he says (p. 141)

…and now he has promised me that a forty-something woman will sleep with me if I’m the drummer (p. 142)

The school didn’t even warn these kids — or their parents — about the adult content within the assigned reading. And parents are understandably furious.

Whatever happened to classics like Ivanhoe or Up From Slavery? Some of the classics contain limited profanity and adult content, but there’s a big difference. The profane content in Fat Kid isn’t sporadic; it’s pervasive and gratuitous. The book has 110 pages containing the F-word and other profanities, and there are multiple crude sexual references.

I telephoned Robert Berger, superintendent of schools for District 126, fully expecting him to assure me that this foolishness would be remedied. But instead, his response was defiant, defensive, and arrogant. Berger refused to answer me when I asked him several times if District 126 believed that such mature content was appropriate for children. (I wonder; if it’s appropriate, then why wouldn’t he defend it?) I asked Berger if one could infer that the district found the material appropriate since it was assigned to children. He quipped, “Infer whatever you want to.”

Unfortunately the actions of District 126 are symptomatic of a larger malady within public education. Kids in public schools across the country are constantly inundated with material which promotes profanity, homosexuality, promiscuity and abortion.

The Agenda is pushed and the curriculum set by leftist groups like the National Education Association (NEA), the ACLU and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Even the American Library Association (ALA) gave Fat Kids its “Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.” The book also received a rave review from America’s largest homosexual activist literary organization, Lambda Literary Foundation.

This is a case of educational malpractice, introducing offensive content to teens and pre-teens, and robbing kids of great reading like Oliver Twist, Treasure Island and many others. How low will they go? By the looks of things in Alsip, Illinois, they’re not going to bottom out anytime soon.

J. Matt Barber is the Corporate Outreach Director for Americans for Truth, a contributing editor for TheConservativeVoice.com, and a contributor to Insight Magazine and AmericanThinker.com.

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